Bombing convict's sentence cut

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An Indonesian jailed for 10 years for his role in the bombing of
a Jakarta hotel which killed 12 people is to get a one month
sentence reduction to mark an Islamic holiday, a report said on
Sunday.

Sardona Siliwangi, 24, will receive the cut as part of annual
sentence reductions given to prisoners to mark the end of the
Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, the Kompas online news service
said.

"Obtaining a sentence cut is the right of all prisoners as long
as he shows good behaviour during his imprisonment and has served
more than six months in jail," Arman Nazar, head of Bengkulu
province's justice and human rights office, was quoted as
saying.

The Indonesian government grants sentence cuts to most prisoners
twice a year, on Independence Day and for the convict's main
religious holiday.

A court in Bengkulu on Sumatra island in February 2004 found
Siliwangi guilty of storing explosives for three months at his
house, before they were taken by suicide bomber Asmar Latin Sani to
Jakarta for the bombing of the Marriott hotel in August 2003.

The explosives were given to him in the presence of Azahari
Husin and Noordin Mohammad Top, the main suspects in the hotel
blast.

The two Malaysians, leading members of the extremist network
Jemaah Islamiah (JI), are also accused of key roles in the October
2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people and the bomb attack on
the Australian embassy in September last year which left 11
dead.

They are believed to be behind the Bali bombings on October 1
that killed 20 people plus the three suicide attackers.

An expert on JI has said the pair could be creating their own
group after splitting from JI's mainstream command structure, which
is concerned about heavy Muslim casualties from the bombings.